Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

by John Carreyrou

I have tried to figure out how we could have arrived at a place where The Journal is considering publication of an article that we know to be false, misleading, and unfair, and that threatens to disclose information that Theranos rigorously protects as trade secrets. The root of the problem may be the drama of the reporter’s original thesis, which may fall into the category of “too good to check.” That thesis, as Mr. Carreyrou explained in discussions with us, is that all of the recognition by the academic, scientific, and health-care communities of the breakthrough contributions of Theranos’ achievements is wrong; that every previous published report about Theranos, including in The Journal itself, has been the result of misleading manipulation by the company; and that the company and its founder are essentially perpetrating a fraud by touting a technology that does not work and using existing commercial equipment to do tests that Theranos pretends are done with new technology. Certainly such an exposé, if true, would be a powerful piece of investigative journalism. The problem may be that even though that thesis is not true, it is just too dramatic to let go.